About
‘Yorùbá Folktales Revisited’ is a collection of 36 popular Yorùbá folktales available individually, and in three volumes:
‘How’ & ‘Why’ Tortoise Tales
‘Selected Tales With Songs’
‘Selected Tortoise Tales Without Songs’
Yorùbá folktales, told and retold, varying from person to person in the re-telling, continue to be of universal interest and importance. This collection provides a literary re-telling of the tales, and expands on the oral stories themselves (owing to the language being more elaborate). They can, however, be adapted to suit any specific readership.
The tales in this collection can be adapted into audiobooks, and for young readers – some of them told in multiple languages – to support language teaching and learning. The tales also lend themselves to visual adaptation, animation and illustrations.
Using cutting-edge technology this website retells the thirty-six tales by presenting each in different ways, e.g. written form, oral, audio, visual. Each story is meticulously crafted to transport you to a world where adventure, love, wisdom, and morality intersect, offering timeless life lessons for all.
The author
Oyinkan Alade-Belo specialises in the teaching, learning and use of languages and related fields, as well as in education. She has a deep interest in Yorùbá traditional life and conducted extensive research on traditional Yorùbá child-rearing practices for her PGDE, and aims of Yorùbá traditional education for her M A Philosophy of Education Thesis. She also enjoys Yorùbá cultural activities including the telling of folktales under the moonlight remembered from childhood.
She is currently working on other projects relating to Yoruba language and culture:
Collection of Idioms, Proverbs and Common Expressions: English/Yoruba – Equivalents;
Yoruba Traditional Songs (including game-chants);
Yoruba Greetings and Salutations for all Occasions
Yoruba Oral Tradition
Folktales use narrative techniques to entertain, engage, and educate listeners. The narrator sets the scene to capture the listener’s imagination, often starting Yorùbá folktales with “Alọ o!” to pique curiosity. Songs frequently enhance these tales, vividly conveying the protagonist’s emotions.
Despite existing in written form, Yorùbá folktales thrive in oral narration, coming alive through the storyteller’s skill. The narrator, an all-seeing presence, tells the story matter-of-factly while holding the audience’s attention through voice modulation and identifying with the characters.
“…above all, [the narrator] is expected to enter into the spirit of the story, sometimes identifying himself with this and the other character as the story progresses… [1]
[1] Ibid, p1, Ayọ Bamgboṣe
Most folktales, including Yorùbá folktales, convey moral lessons, illustrate behaviour and its consequences, reflect cultural values, or explain historical aspects, making them valuable teaching tools.
Ayọ Bamgboṣe identifies recurring themes in Yorùbá moral stories: rivalry between wives, vice, retribution, trial by tasks, and the beautiful girl and her suitors.
The rivalry between wives theme reflects Yorùbá polygamy, contrasting good and bad wives, often extending enmity to their children (e.g., “Ojeje Traders,” “The Two Wives,” “Agbigbo the Great”).
Many folktales highlight vices like treachery, theft, and cruelty, aiming to show the consequences for such behaviours.
The trial by tasks theme tests characters’ strength and endurance, often determining who marries a beautiful girl, typically a king’s daughter, with the successful suitor being least expected (e.g., “Ijapa and the Three Princesses,” “Ijapa and the Hot-Water Test”).
In stories like “Ijapa and Kerebuje” and “Amọla and the Hunter,” heroines defy their fathers’ marriage choices, not out of pride but to avoid marrying for the wrong reasons.
The moral that is emphasised in these is the consequences of parents insisting on marrying off their daughters.
Tortoise stories or trickster tales – favourite theme among folktales – are found in the folktales of many cultures in Africa and in many cultures around the world. The trickster is usually presented as an animal but is remarkably human in his behaviour.
Usually embodied in animal form the trickster is strikingly human in habits, predisposition, and weaknesses. The animal differs from culture to culture: in Africa it could be the spider (like Asante Ananse…, the hare (like…), the jackal (as in southern Africa), or the tortoise – like the Yoruba Ajapa, the hero of the tales in this collection.[1]
Unlike the majority of folktales characters, the trickster is a mix of good and evil. The tortoise, Ijapa, in Yoruba Folktales can be extremely helpful to others at times, and at other times extremely mischievous.
Folktales tricksters are indelible in one’s minds and are seen as having remarkable physical and mental capabilities. The tortoise, Ijapa, has such an impact on the imagination of the Yoruba, that most of the tales told us, Yoruba children, in childhood are built around him). [2]
Referring to Tortoise Stories as the second major type of Yoruba Folktales, A. Bamgbose says “The Tortoise is the most ubiquitous character in Yoruba Folktales. He is clever, cunning, and sometimes wicked. He outwits other characters and is very rarely himself outwitted. That is why he is often called Ijapa Ọlọgbọn ẹwẹ “Tortoise, the cunning”. He is admired for his cunning, despised for his wickedness, but generally regarded as a hero in most of the folk-tales.”[3]
Most of the Tortoise stories are concerned with his display of cleverness.
The following tales in my collection of Yoruba Folktales Revisited are examples of Ijapa’s display of cleverness: Ijapa, Erin and Erinmilokun, Ijapa and Ehoro, Ijapa and Erin, and Ijapa and the Hot-Water Test. It sometimes happens, however, that the Tortoise proves to be too clever and is outwitted.” [4] (Why Tortoise (Ijapa) is Bald), one of the tales in my collection, is an example of this.
Apart from being clever, cunning and sometimes wicked, Ijapa is lazy, and greedy.
Ijapa is so lazy that he will not work to make a living. Plagued by an inveterate aversion for work, in times of both scarcity and plenty he relies on trickery and the reluctant generosity of some friend and neighbour to obtain food. Matching his shiftlessness is an insatiable appetite so powerful that… it gets the better of him…. (Owomoyela) (How Tortoise (Ijapa)’s Stomach Became Hollow), one of the tales in my collection, is an example of this.
Apart from being lazy and greedy, Ajapa is also incomparable in his tight-fistedness, his refusal to share with any creature whatever falls into his hands. So remarkable is this trait in him that one of his designations, “Ahun” is a colloquial Yoruba for “miser” or “miserliness”… (Owomoyela)
…He is commonly given the name Ijapa, but in some stories he bears the name Awun, Abawun, Alabawun. His wife’s name is Yanribo (or Yannibo); that is why he bears the oriki (special praise name): Ijapa Tiroko, ọkọ Yanrinbo (or Ijapa Tiroko, ọkọ Yannibo). In some stories, however, the Tortoise, in spite of his appellation, appears as a suitor wanting to marry a king’s daughter or some other girl. (Bamgbose) (Ijapa (Tortoise) and the Princesses, Ijapa (Tortoise) and Kerebuje, Ijapa (Tortoise) and the Hot Water Test ) in my collection of folktales).
Many of the other Tortoise stories are concerned with the exhibition of some vice or mischief. He is shown as treacherous, greedy, ungrateful, untrustworthy or wicked. Unlike the moral stories, the Tortoise sometimes
gets away with wrongdoing. Sometimes he escapes before he is caught, or when caught, he successfully puts the blame on someone else or gives a plausible excuse. (Bamgbose). However, Ijapa’s mischiefs and wrongdoing often gets him into trouble, resulting in his being punished or injured (sometimes severely), driven away from where he lives by the Oba (ruler), or even sentenced to death.
When he is punished for his wickedness…, the punishment is often linked with his anatomy, and the story then ends like a “Why” story. (Bamgbose)
[1] Yoruba Trickster Tales – Oyekan Owomoyela
[2] Ibid, Owomoyela
[3] Ibid, p1, Ayo Bamgbose
[4] Ibid, p1, Ayo Bamgbose
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‘Why’ Stories or Just So Stories are also a favourite theme among folktales in Africa and in many cultures around the world. ‘Why’ Stories pretend to explain why and how certain things came into being – for example why the sky is far away from earth.
‘Why’ Stories are the third major type of folk-tales. They are stories designed to explain either some natural phenomenon (especially in the animal world) or the origin of the observance or discontinuance of certain customs.
The natural phenomenon may be connected to some human anatomy, animal anatomy, animal behaviour, animal noises, plants, or general physical or metaphysical questions.
… such a story explains why things are as they are. That is why “why” stories end in a set phrase indicating that it was from such and such a time that such and such a phenomenon, or custom came into existence (Bamgbose)
The five stories in my first collection of Yoruba Folktales Revisited – Yoruba Folktales: ‘How’ & ‘Why’ Tortoise Tales – are examples of such Just So Stories or ‘Why’ Stories, linked to Ijapa’s anatomy. They tell us how the tortoise got his shell, how he cracked his shell, how he became bald, why his stomach is hollow, and why his nose is very small.
Plot
Repetitive action in the plot is one of the devices of ensuring simplicity and sometimes of making the story longer.
The repeated action is often accompanied by a song which has the dual function of marking the end of each action and recalling the cause of the action. The song is therefore a signpost marking a significant point in the
story, at once looking back to what has gone before and anticipating what is to come…
The device of contrastive action is used in the construction of a symmetrical plot. In the typical symmetrical plot there are two contrasting characters…The characters are involved in identical incidents to which they react differently according to their character type…(Bamgbose) (The Two Wives and Agbigbo, The Great in my collection of Yoruba Folktales Revisited are examples of the device of contrastive action).
Reversal of fortunes is another device in the construction of a symmetrical plot identified by Ayo Bamgbose. “Two characters are contrasted at the beginning of the story…the bad character being well-placed and the good one at a disadvantage. At the end of the story, the situation is reversed…”
Intervention by an external agency is one of the usual devices employed in the plot of folktales. “Whenever the plot gets to a sticky point and the character is faced with insurmountable odds, a miraculous agent (deus-ex-machina) often appears who helps the character over his difficulties…The helper may be someone completely strange and unknown to the character…The help is generally in the form of charms or the disclosure of a secret… (Bamgbose) (this device is used, for example, in my Olailo and the Mysterious Woman, and Amọla and the Hunter)
From my study of the Yoruba Folktales that come with songs, intervention by an external agency sometimes follows after the protagonist sings a song. Singing is a catharsis. One gets the impression that the protagonist believes that singing may reverse the situation in which they find themselves.
The emphasis of the plot, we are told, is on the swift movement of the story…hence, characters move in space and time with great ease and speed. It is irrelevant to judge actions by realistic standards…Sudden changes of scene, precipitate actions, unexpected behaviour…all these are features that have to be accepted as part of the convention of the plot of folk-tales. (Bamgbose)
A moral and romantic world
Ayọ Bamgboṣe describes the world of folktales as a moral and romantic world. “It is also a… world in which fact and fiction are blurred and the supernatural as common as the natural. It is a world in which fantastic actions take place…Weird incidents are common-place: the dead come to life…In this kind of world, it is not surprising that the characters are also unusual.
The animals in folktales are “… are animals with a difference: Not just in the obvious sense that they are able to talk like human beings, but in the sense that they are endowed with human faculties and can think and act like humans while retaining their animal anatomy. For example, the Tortoise can sing…” (Bamgboṣe).
In some of the tortoise stories in my collection of Yorùbá Folktales Revisited, the tortoise (Ijapa) can sing, drum and play the flute (How Tortoise (Ijapa) Got His Shell – Ijapa and Iya-Ẹlẹpa, and Ijapa (Tortoise) and Iya-Alakara (Akara Seller).
The distinction between animate and inanimate, human and non-human is irrelevant… and there is generally all forms of communication between the different types of characters. (Bamgboṣe). Animals are referred to and addressed in the same way as humans.
As for the time of action, we can observe from the opening of the folk-tale that it is vague (“One day”, “At a certain time”).
The place of action is also vague, and it is only rarely that it is specified. Generally, there is reference to a certain town, or a certain country. The vagueness of time and place is also matched by a vagueness of character. The set phrase: okunrin kan wa (“there was a certain man”) is a typical description of character. Variations of the phrase only involve a substitution of the character required: for example, “there was a certain woman (or king or chief or hunter or farmer or boy). Even when different characters are involved, they could still all be vague…(Bamgboṣe)
For the great majority of characters there is no attempt at giving any indication of what they are like and what attributes they possess. This is true of the vague human characters already referred to; it is true of most of the animal characters, who are simply mentioned, for example, Hawk, Cat, Sheep, Goat, Guinea-Fowl (Bamgboṣe). All the animals in my collection of Yorùbá Folktales Revisited are referred to in this way, for example, Kiniun (Lion), Ijapa (Tortoise), Erin (Elephant), Erinmilokun (Hippopotamus). …it is also true of a large number of human characters who are referred to only by their profession, for example, Policeman, Yam-Seller, Chief, Farmer, Hunter, Fisherman, etc. In my collection of folktales, there are also Iya-Ẹlẹpa (Groundnut Seller), Iya-Alakara (Akara Seller), Iya-Oniru (The Locust-Bean Seller).
The reason for the general vagueness of character in the folk-tales is that characters are not really important as characters. The important thing is the action of the story (what happens first and next and last), the theme, the outcome of the action and whatever lesson may be learnt from it. In looking at the characters in the folk-tales, it is irrelevant, therefore, to expect any “real” characters. They are generally “types” who are so unimportant that even their being unnamed does not affect their role in the story (Bamgboṣe).
Folktales, especially those closest to oral tradition, tend to have simple grammar. Sentences tend to be short. Simple past and present tenses are common. Subordinate clauses are not very common. The connectors between the sentences and the relationships between the ideas tend to be simple; sentences are connected with “and” and “but”, not phrases like “notwithstanding the fact that”. The more literary forms of folktales have somewhat more complex grammar but are still less complex than the language of essays or academic writings (Using Folktales – Eric K Taylor).
Ayọ Bamgboṣe shares the same views on this: The language of the folk-tales is simple and straightforward. Quite often the narrative is given in a sequence of short sentences with items such as “and”, and “then” indicating cohesion between the sentences. Descriptions are avoided and modifiers such as adjectives and adverbs are sparingly used…
One striking aspect of the language of folk-tales is the use of certain set phrases at the beginning and at the end of the story. The narrator announces the commencement of the folk-tale by saying Alọ o and the audience responds Alọ. Then the story usually opens with one of a number of set phrases referring to time and the main character. For example, ni ọjọ kan, ọkunrin kan wa “At a certain time, there was a certain man”. Variations on the “time” phrase include: ni akoko kan (“at a certain time”), ni igba lailai (“in the olden days”), ni igba atijọ (“in ancient times”)
The story usually ends in a set phrase. If the story is a moral story, the ending is a moral; formula such as Itan yi kọ nipe…”This story teaches us that” and then follows the moral…Sometimes the moral is just given without any introductory formula… If the story is a “why” story…..the characteristic formula for ending the story is either lati igba yi ni…”It is from this time that…” or idi rẹ ni yi ti…”This is the reason why…” The formula is then followed by some natural phenomenon or custom which is being explained. For example, it is from this time that the cat came to live in the house, the sky moved farther away from the earth…(Bamgboṣe).
Folktales employ narrative techniques to entertain, engage and educate the listener. They begin with the narrator setting the scene to capture the listener’s imagination. Many Yorùbá Folktales begin with “Alọ o!” (riddle) to arouse the curiosity of the listener as to what type of tale to expect. Songs also feature regularly in many of the tales to enhance the delivery of important messages and are an effective way of conveying vividly to the listener the depth of the protagonist’s feelings (be it joy, sadness, distress, hope, anxiety, fears, etc).
Although Yorùbá Folktales now exist in writing, they are still primarily an oral form of literature which only comes to life when narrated to an audience..
“The narrator is an all-seeing story-teller who narrates the story in a matter-of-fact manner like one present and observing the actions of the character…The narrator holds the attention of his audience by his skill in storytelling. He employs such devices as varying the pitch of his voice. But above all, he is expected to enter into the spirit of the story, sometimes identifying himself with this and the other character as the story progresses… [1]
Stories Revisited
In my series of Yorùbá Folktales Revisited I have selected thirty-six of the tales which feature among the most popular of our tales. Most of the tales come with songs. In re-telling them I have grouped them into three categories: (a) a collection of five ‘Why’ Stories built around the tortoise, Ijapa, entitled: Yorùbá Folktales Revisited: ‘How’ and ‘Why’ Tortoise Tales, (b) a collection of twenty-four tales with songs, entitled: Yorùbá Folktales Revisited: Selected Tales With Songs, and (c) a collection of seven tales without songs, built once more around the tortoise, Ijapa, entitled: Yorùbá Folktales Revisited: Selected Tortoise Tales Without Songs.
The first series comprises five popular tales built around ‘how’ and ‘why’ Ijapa came about his appearance, as a springboard for further stories about this legendary character. The stories start with how Ijapa got his shell, then cracked it, and then why his stomach became hollow and how he became bald, and finally why his nose is very small. Four of these stories come with songs.
In the second series, there are twenty-four popular tales with songs, seven of which are built around the tortoise. In the tortoise tales we get to know more and more about him.
The third series features seven tales that do not come with songs, built once more around the tortoise.
Whenever I cast my mind back to the Yorùbá Folktales that were told to me as a child, it is the songs that come easily to mind, and I find that it is the same with some other people I ask about the stories. I believe that the songs are a very important part of the stories, and that not everyone would have heard them before. A recording of the twenty-eight songs are therefore available to accompany the tales.
I do hope that children in particular will derive a great deal of pleasure from listening to the songs, as much as I did as a child!
Re-telling folktales (either in writing or to an audience in the same way as the storyteller in a typical setting) varies from person to person. In my collection of Yorùbá Folktales Revisited my aim is to revisit the tales, and in re-telling them, exploit fully the same basic stories and themes, i.e. the fundamental issues, the underlying themes and ideas, and the dimensions to the stories, whilst retaining the essence of the revisited tales.
I hope that the tales will come alive even more in my re-telling and will appeal to a wide range of people. I hope that readers will find them not only enjoyable and entertaining (which was the aim of the storyteller in a typical setting) but also meaningful – especially those readers who are interested in preserving or reviving Yorùbá Folktales for the sake of their children, in Nigeria and abroad.
I have revisited the tales through a variety of materials – oral and written – as well as what I myself remember of them from childhood. The materials, which are as follows, were invaluable to me in my quest; they enhanced my recollection of the tales – of fundamental issues, underlying themes and ideas:
(a) tales that various individuals have been kind to recount to me in Yorùbá or in English – in particular, Ọrẹ Ojei, Lọlade Ọpeọla, Sewande Wellington, and my late sister-in-law, Peju Alade, who took the trouble of recording on cassette, not only some tales, but also some Yorùbá traditional songs (including game-chants) (to be used for a future project).
(b) tales that Bolaji Coker wrote up and recorded on cassette for me in Yorùbá
(c) tales in Jimi Ṣolankẹ’s compilation of folktales: ‘Stories-In-Waiting’
(d) tales from published materials– written under ‘Bibliography’ at the end of my books – in particular, from the invaluable works of Professor A. Babalola, Lady K. Ademọla, O. Owomọyẹla, Hugh Vernon-Jackson, Jack Berry, O. Ojo, R.T. Ọdẹyẹmi, Adebisi Amọo, Ọlatunji Ọpadọtun, M.I. Ogunmẹfu, Kẹmi Morgan, Rẹmi Adedeji, O. Awoyẹle, Sẹgun Ṣofowotẹ, Amos Tutuọla, Kunle Akinṣemọyin, Mabel Ṣegun. Also, the works of writers of Yorùbá school books for primary and secondary schools (eg J.F. Ọdunjọ, J.S.A. Odunjirin).
The Bibliography includes other published folktales-related materials that may be of interest to my readers.
I am very privileged to have had access to all the oral and written materials, which I have drawn on, in my re-telling of the folktales in three volumes, and I thank everyone who has made this possible even if not mentioned by name (which is not intentional).